Posh Shopping Mall Suggests Sales Clerks Dine Out--Literally

Management at South Coast Plaza’s posh Crystal Court annex thinks its sales clerks should dine out more often.

Retail workers at the $80-million mall have been given the hint to take their brown bags elsewhere.

A mall newsletter last week not so subtly informed employees that “there’s a perfect spot” half a mile from the Costa Mesa shopping center. “A beautiful park will provide you with a much-needed respite, so grab your brown bag and escape.”

Since the marble- and oak-trimmed mall opened last October, General Manager Jack Matthess has been letting employees know that benches scattered throughout the 685,000-square-foot mall are for sitting, not eating. “Having a picnic, are you?” Matthess regularly asks workers eating lunch on the benches.

Matthess said the newsletter message is not an edict but that employees are “absolutely right” that he would prefer them to brown bag it outside.

“Yogurt makes a terrible stain on marble,” he said Friday.

“When I walk through some malls and see people all eating and making a mess with paper cups and straws and everything else, sometimes I look and say, ‘People are just pigs, darnit. . . . All of a sudden it looks like a bargain basement. It’s just not proper for a business center.”

The mall has no fast-food outlets, and the only eatery right now is a restaurant where lunch tabs average $12 a person.

So employees are not budging from the benches. “We’ve all just said ‘tough,’ ” one said, and kept chewing.